[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26389]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       LETTERS FROM CONSTITUENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 1838, former President, then-
Congressman, John Quincy Adams came to the House floor because he was 
prohibited, as were the other Members of Congress, from debating the 
most important issue of the day.
  Conservative leadership in the House of Representatives between 1838 
and 1842 had passed a rule prohibiting and banning the discussion of 
slavery on the floor of the House of Representatives. Then-Congressman 
John Quincy Adams came to the floor, day after day, week after week, 
sharing letters from his constituents, many of them from women who 
could not vote in those days, sharing letters from his constituents 
asking, pleading with the House, that they debate the issue of slavery 
and that they ban and wipe away that blot on American history.
  In some ways similarly today, Members of this House have not had the 
opportunity to debate the issues of Iraq, of keeping our troops safe in 
Iraq, of providing and supplying our troops, of the corruption and the 
incompetence in the Pentagon and in the Bush administration in 
supplying the troops and turning over so many public dollars to private 
contractors.
  As a result, I would like to share some of those concerns. Since we 
are not debating the issues on the House floor, I would like share some 
of the concerns with letters from my constituents.
  Sabba, from Richfield, Ohio, writes, ``The Bush administration had no 
concrete evidence confirming the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. 
Bush completely disregarded the United Nations' dissenting opinion.''
  You can see in letter after letter I am receiving in Ohio, and my 
colleagues, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich), the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. 
Jones) and Members from both parties in Ohio are receiving from all 
over the country, people's concerns that the President and the 
administration may not have leveled with the American people about all 
of these issues.

                              {time}  2100

  Margaret of Strongsville writes, ``Please don't throw money into a 
vast pit which will affect us all for another several generations.''
  Margaret is referring to the $1 billion a week that the President is 
already spending in Iraq, a third of that money unaccounted for, going 
to private contractors, many of them the President's friends, and that 
is where she and so many others believe there is so much waste and so 
much pork.
  Marvin of Akron, Ohio, says, ``The request must be carefully 
scrutinized and unnecessary expenditures removed.''
  Thomas of Akron, Ohio, writes, ``How much debt is acceptable?''
  What he is writing about is he understands, as most Members of this 
House do, I think, on both sides of the aisle, that the $87 billion is 
put on a government credit card. We are going to spend our children's 
and our grandchildren's money, in large part, because Congress has 
voted a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. The average millionaire 
in this country, as Thomas knows from his letter, the average 
millionaire in this country gets a $93,000 tax cut. Half of Ohioans get 
no tax cut at all. Yet, we are not going to rescind that tax cut for 
the richest of Americans, for the American millionaires that get 
$93,000; we are going to put this war on a credit card so that that $87 
billion plus the $80 billion that Congress has already spent, plus the 
tens of billions more that we know President Bush will ask for, will be 
paid for by our children and our grandchildren.
  Crystal of Akron writes, ``Please think long and hard before you 
spend $87 billion. To what end?'' We hear that over and over and over.
  When I read these letters, Mr. Speaker, one thing also that comes out 
is people understand that of this $1 billion a week we are spending in 
Iraq, one-third of it goes to private contractors. Most of those 
private contracts are unbid contracts, and most of that money is going 
to friends of the President. Halliburton, Bechtel, corporation after 
corporation, if you look at FEC reports, you see those corporations, 
the employees of those corporations are giving hundreds of thousands 
and, in some cases, millions of dollars to the President's campaign. 
And to make that even worse, Mr. Speaker, Halliburton, the company 
where the former CEO is now the Vice President of the United States, 
Dick Cheney, Halliburton has received over $2 billion in government 
contracts, over $1 billion in unbid, unaccounted for contracts; and 
Halliburton is still paying Vice President Cheney, still paying Vice 
President Cheney $13,400 a month. Vice President Cheney is receiving 
$13,000, more than $13,000 a month, $160,000 a year, from this company 
that gets unbid contracts of taxpayer dollars to fix Iraq, to supply 
the troops, to do whatever that Halliburton is supposedly doing.
  Halliburton's profits have gone sky high while they have the go on 
these contracts, while they have paid the Vice President of the United 
States. It is just amazing to me. All of us in this body should be 
incredulous that we are spending this kind of money, giving this money 
to a company like Halliburton, with unbid contracts, literally hundreds 
of millions of dollars a week, and then this company turns around and 
pays Vice President Cheney $13,000 a month.
  Mr. Speaker, I close with the last letter, Anthony from Akron, Ohio: 
``Bush needs to face up to these facts. I am 16 years old. I myself 
feel that growing up in America will now be tougher because of all of 
these things that are going on.''
  Mr. Speaker, end the corruption, end the incompetence of the Bush 
administration in Iraq, do it right. Fix Iraq the right way. Stop the 
corruption. Stop the incompetence.

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